Sudden Impact

This prefab neighborhood sprouted in a Philadelphia minute, but its roots are deep.

by A.D. Amorosi

DesignPhiladelphia's primary theme this year, "Down to Earth: Evolving Design in the 21st Century," got Hilary Jay thinking outside the box. "Everywhere you turn, it's sustainable this and ecological that," says the DP co-founder and executive director. "I didn't want to be as blatant with our message, so I titled our theme to leave room for interpretation."

Michael T. Regan FITTING IN: Built around stately brownstones and cookie-cutter condos on South Broad Street, "A Clean Break" seeks to energize Philadelphians about low-waste, high-function urban design.

In this city, nothing so zestfully calls to mind the need for design evolution than "A Clean Break," a "pop-up neighborhood" exhibit of prefabricated spaces combining notions of sustainability, affordable housing, eco-friendliness and near-future revitalization.

And nothing calls to mind the idea of a "pop-up neighborhood" — something surreal, modern, tasteful and pragmatic — like Broad Street, this city's grandest central thoroughfare where richly appointed brownstones sit beside freshly mined cookie-cutter condos. "We wanted to have a center axis," says Jay. "Broad Street spoke to this."

Eugenie Perret and Elizabeth Oliver of Old City's Minima Gallery co-curated "A Clean Break" with ideas of urban infill and sustainability in mind. Both women wanted to encourage awareness and involvement in the design of 21st-century development from all parties involved — city officials, developers, builders, policy-makers and citizens — and Broad Street was a great place to show off. "No one can refute the magnificent architecture of its past," says Perret. "It is precisely this integrity we seek to uphold — and some not-so-magnificent architecture."

Participant buildings began to "pop up" on a vacant quarter-block lot on South Broad near the design-heavy likes of the Kimmel Center and the Broad Street Ministry on Oct. 1. But its roots are deeper: Minima began "Clean Break" nine months ago by asking how prefabricated housing could become reality in Philadelphia. Perret and Oliver turned to designers and architects they knew and respected — Toronto's Sustain Design Studio, New York City's Gans Studio & dArchitects and St. Paul, Minn.'s Alchemy Architects among them — for a showcase of residence renderings, installations and assembled prefab dwellings.

"Our goal this year is to think bigger — to expand awareness of DesignPhiladelphia and to expand its outlook by including architects and designers from outside the city," says Perret, who has curated Mimina events for DP since its start four years ago. "Thematically, we expanded upon Minima's interest in design to explore modern architecture — prefabs in particular — and the reality that innovation in design can be accessible to a wide audience." Perret has lived in Philadelphia for 12 years; Oliver, one and a half. With the knowledge of the area's first model of prefabricated homes, in Levittown, Perret and Oliver focused "A Clean Break" on modular designs suited to the current urban environment.

The feel of "A Clean Break" will be dense — made to emulate a Philly row-home city block — and include three structures and four architect installations. Oliver notes there has been a lot of attention in the gallery world about prefabricated homes without the opportunity on the East Coast to experience them firsthand. Modeled in part on the now-famous Dwell on Design exhibition of prefabrication in the modern world, "A Clean Break" aims to break down that wall by building it: Full-scale units and architect-designed installations will allow visitors to experience the individual bodies of work, design aesthetic and material choices.

ABSOLUTELY PREFABULOUS: Sustain Design Studio's energy-efficient "MiniHome" is marketed as a cheaper alternative to typical starter homes.

"From the beginning, our intention was to plan the exhibition in an outdoor space central and accessible to most Philadelphians," says Oliver, referring both to the exhibit's location on Broad Street and to the homes' relatively low cost.

With this in mind, Minima enlisted Alchemy Architects to bring "WeeHouse," an existing single unit — on loan from Saturn/General Motors — large enough for visitors to tour and realistic in terms of affordability and building-code restrictions. WeeHouse doesn't have a bathroom or other amenities, but you can see and feel its potential. Having Iannone Design Philadelphia's furniture installation inside and a bus shelter by SMIT Studio of Brooklyn outside doesn't hurt, either. "[It] looks small from the outside, but once I got inside, it's bigger than my first house," laughs Oliver.

Also on exhibit are a 13-foot-tall loft-like MiniHome from Sustain Design Studio, a full-scale "urban RV" with a green roof and "healthy" finishes; a "vertical farming" site-specific installation; 14-foot-long structures from students at the University of Kansas' Studio 804; and a mixed-media installation of video and model properties by Philly's Interface Studio Architects. "Interface Studio introduces prefab components into various projects and embodies all of the goals of our entire show," says Oliver. "It's not necessarily affordable housing with a capital 'A,' but great modern design, accessible to a larger demographic. What we're doing with these houses, technologies and designs — all modern, green and great — is about getting more innovation for your buck."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

"A Clean Break," opening reception Thu., Oct. 16, 7-10 p.m.; exhibit runs through Oct. 30; free, 313 S. Broad St., acleanbreak.org.